The new 3D Hubs Trend Reports is out and once again it helps us draw a clear picture – possibly the clearest picture – of the consumer 3D printing scene. This scene covers both personal desktop 3D printer users and consumers of B2C 3D printing services. Once again though, the biggest news in 3D Hubs 3D Printing Trends for November 2014 is… 3D Hubs itself, which as the company’s co-founder, Bram De Zwart revealed to me last week in New York, is on course to hit 10,000 registered Hubs by the end of this year. It’s currently “well over 9000.”
These are the perks of being a 3D printing journalist: sometimes you get to hang out with some of the most interesting people in 3D printing in some of the coolest places on Earth. Bram is in the US managing the local office, which is in the NewLab facility at Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, just as New York takes the lead as 3D Hubs largest city, with 144 registered 3D printers. Milan (which I can proudly call my hometown) is still a close second, with 134 and, considering it has about one sixth of New York’s population, a much higher density. London (the city I am in right now), is third, with 111. Bram’s own hometown, Amsterdam is only fifth (with 93) however it is considerably smaller and, counting Den Haag’s 85, Eindhoven’s 76 and Rotterdam’s 75, still makes the Netherlands the number one country for 3D Hubs.
The number one driver for 3D Hubs’s growth in November is FormLabs’ Form 1+, a semiprofessional SLA system, showing that more and more users are turning to the platform for higher level services. The Form 1+ is both the highest rated 3D printer and the one registering the strongest month on month (MoM) growth: +49.2%. MakerBot’s Z18 – also a semi-professional grade system – comes in second in terms of growth (+40%), and, with Stratasys’ Fortus 250MC in fifth place (first among fully professional grade systems) seems to confirm to some degree David Reis’s statement that there is no internal competition among Stratasys’ and MakerBot’s FDM offer. Another B2C 3D printer, the Projet 660 (an over $60,000 machine) now also figures on the growth chart with 17.2% MoM growth, once again demonstrating 3D Hubs appeal in terms of a business proposal.
In the user’s appreciation chart, FormLabs is solidly on top with the Form 1 following the Form 1+, while the third spot goes to Polish based Zortrax, with its very solid M200. Spanish BQ’s Witbox (another highly appreciated machine) is fourth and Stratasys’ uPrint is fifth. While MakerBot’s and Ultimaker’s systems are further down, they are by far the most frequently reviewed machines (with over 1K reviews when the other systems are in the high tens or low hundreds at most) and, as any App developer knows, the number of reviews is more important than the quality.
To follow up on its more professional focused offer, 3D Hubs introduced a chart especially dedicated to the professional grade systems. In this very exclusive club, 3D Systems $100K MJP resin-based SLA 3D printer, the Projet 3500 HDMax comes in as the highest rated, while Stratsys’ PolyJet-based Objet Eden 260 is the runner up. Stratasys also takes up the fourth spot with its professional FDM Dimension 1200 system, while 3D Systems takes the other two in the top five with two versions of what is basically the same machine: the plaster based Projet 600 and its ZCorp predecessor.
The other charts reflect previous months of the report, with the Replicator2/Replicator 2X and Ultimaker Original/Ultimaker 2 duopoly in 3D printer distribution although 3D Hubs points out that the Prusa i3 overtook the Ultimaker original to become the second most popular 3D printer on 3D Hubs. Stratasys remains the number one manufacturer, with MakerBot’s systems holding on to their lead in all continents except Europe, where Ultimaker is still occupying first and second place.
This, finally, is 3D Hubs’ full map of global 3D printer distribution and, for a network that firmly believes in the onslaught of distributed manufacturing, it is arguably its most treasured chart. I, for one, on my next trip around the world would very much like to go visit this hub:
